Amazon Business Account: What Is it & What You Need to Know

If you shop on Amazon with a business credit card, you’ve probably seen a pop up asking you to create a free Amazon Business account. This is what you need to know about an Amazon Business account, what it offers you, and why you may want to upgrade. If you’re having trouble with your current vendors in 2020, this may be a good way to avoid another run to the store to get the essentials for your essential business or working from home.

While there are a lot of upsides, there are some reasons you may not want to make an Amazon Business account when you see the option. That said, it is worth the upgrade for most real businesses that rely on Amazon.

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With Amazon Business, you can buy things tax-exempt on Amazon if you qualify, unlock quantity discounts for things you buy a lot of, and you can pair this with an Amazon Business Prime account for purchasing controls and invoicing up to 60 days.

What is an Amazon Business Account?

An Amazon Business account is a special business-focused account on Amazon that any business can use. It works for sole proprietors with only one account, but it is also very helpful for larger businesses that can use approval processes to keep spending in check.

You can create more user accounts so employees can make purchases for the company. An individual Amazon Prime subscription works with Amazon Business, or you can buy an Amazon Business Prime account that starts at $179 a year for up to three users and scales to enterprise level.

Amazon Business Account Benefits

Here are the Amazon Business account benefits.

With the program, you get a lot of Amazon Business benefits. These include the following upgrades and special offers;

Some of the business only items that you can buy include; traffic signs, industrial deep fryers, antibodies, 55-gallon steel drums, dent pullers, and more.

If you use the same email as your personal account, you can share Amazon Prime benefits with your business account, and employees that use their account. Or you can get a Prime Business account. You can also get free shipping on orders over $49 without any special membership.

Downsides to Amazon Business Accounts

The only real catch is if you are using the Amazon Business account for personal use. Mixing business and personal purchases could complicate things at tax time. If you aren’t going to use this strictly for business, you may want to consult with your accountant before signing up.

Amazon Prime vs Amazon Business

At the core, Amazon Prime is for individuals and the Amazon Business account is for business users. That’s one of the biggest differences and the one that will matter to small business owners.

Unlike using a shared Amazon Prime account among all employees, an Amazon Business account makes it easy to see who is ordering and what each individual or group is buying on the account. That’s perfect for making sure purchases are necessary and kept in check.

Unlike Amazon Prime, you also get a dedicated Amazon Business account customer support line.

Amazon Business Account Fees

It is free to sign up for an Amazon Business account. There is no annual fee to shop on Amazon Business unless you want access to Business Prime Shipping. If you need that access, you will need to pay a fee based on the number of users. The pricing structure is below, and you’ll see it when you sign up.

Essentials: $179 per year for up to 3 users (max 3 users)

Small: $499 per year for up to 10 users (max 10 users)

Medium: $1,299 per year for up to 100 users (max 100 users)

Enterprise: $10,099 per year for over 100 users

You can share your personal Amazon Prime membership with your business account, but you cannot use this for personal purchases. You also cannot use this to resell products that you ship directly to another customer using Amazon Business prime shipping.

How to Get COVID-19 Supplies on Amazon

If you are an eligible business, you can get prioritization on COVI-19 supplies on Amazon. This includes protective apparel, infection prevention, diagnostics, and lab supplies.

These include the following types of businesses, which get special access to these items and which Amazon is selling at no profit. You need a free Amazon Business account and to prove you are one of these eligible types of business.

U.S. accredited hospitals, referencing the Commission of Medicare and Medicaid Services identification

Federal agencies directly responding to COVID-19, specifically the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense, and Department of Health and Human Services

Members of the American Ambulance Association

Government police and fire departments (city, county, state, or federal)

State and local governments including cities, counties, towns or districts

You may want to check with accounting or purchasing as many of these agencies may already have an Amazon Business account that can be shared within the organization.

What Happens To Your Amazon Account?

When you sign up for an Amazon Business account, you can choose what to do with your current Amazon account. You can make it into the business account, which is what you might want to do if you already have a second Amazon account that you use for work. The other option is to make a new account specifically for the business. This is the best option if you are signing up for Amazon Business to use with your small business and you don’t want to mix your personal and business purchases.

Purchase Controls with Amazon Business

If you need to control how employees are purchasing on Amazon, you can do that with the Amazon Business account. The free business account lets you set up approval workflows, see purchasing analytics and even set up multiple user groups.

If you opt for Amazon Business Prime, you get even more control with the ability to set preferred purchases, restricted purchases and even block specific items.